Relocating tank from one room to another... Fish stress issues?

[Noah_Count]

My wife is at it again and I have to move my 55 gallon tank from one room to another. It's a fish only tank with live rock and sand and it pretty much has been left alone except for sporadic cleaning and maintenance as I haven't been very active in the hobby. I have a Tomato Clown a Royal Gramma and a damsel.
What's the least stressful way to the fish to do this move? I think last time I moved it (yes, there was a last time and a time before that too!:mad: ) I just left the sand and enough water for the fish in the bottom of the tank and moved it with them in it.
I've gotten where it's tougher and tougher for me to move heavy items though because of back problems. I only have my son to help so I was wondering if it would be too much stress on the fish to net them out and place them in a bucket of the existing aquarium water while I got things moved. I could do without the damsel or even the gramma but I've had my Tomato Clown a long time and I really don't want to lose it if I can help it. Actually, I don't want to kill any fish at all if I can possibly help it. Advice?

[prugs]

Just to make the wife happier, get a larger tank setup where she wants it. Use new sand, switch the rock work over to the new tank, net the fish out after the new tank has been running for a few days.

[darkcirca]

I've done the tank move/switch myself in the past few months. I decided to buy a larger tank, but it had to go where the existing one was. In order to buy the tank I needed to sell my old one.
Just to get a better picture I had a 56 gallon (cubeish) moving to a 90 gallon. My plan was to sell the tank on craigslist, move the fish, buy the new one and set it up.

I thankfully had a spare tank, well okay not spare, my leopard geckos were stuck in a box for a few days..30 gallon tank. I put all my fish in the 30 gallon along with all the rock without corals. The inverts plus corals went in a 20 gallon tank (to be used as my sump) and left them in the storage room for 3 days. I ran powerheads and had heaters in them, but no light. Worked wonders on my cyano though.
These 3 days I was able to sell my tank, buy a new one and build a stand. Had it up and running (sumpless) after 3 days. Didn't lose any fish, or corals either due to that. The fish that did the move were 2 false percs, 1 firefish, a diamond goby (rip-carpet surfing), and a yellow tang (rip-no idea what). The other 3 are still alive, along with cleaner shrimp, inverts and whatever else is in there.

So yes, buckets, big ones, a powerhead and a heater in there and you'd most likely be okay. Get it set up and do it all in one day, in a few hours if possible. Maybe even split up the fish for the day.

[clarkiis]

I just recently moved my 75gallon from one room to the next. I choose to move the tank on my scheduled weekly water change, this time just a bit larger 15gallons. Then I had 2 45 gallon rubbermaid tubs which I was able to siphon all water, put all my rock, fish and corals in. I have 2 heaters so that wasnt a big deal and put a small spower head in each container just to keep water moving incase I ran into something to where it would take an extended amount of time. I had a 5 gallon bucks which I put as much sand in as I could. Tank and stand was farley easy to move after that.

I must say it would have been a good idea to have the 45 gallon tubs as close as possible to the new location. Good thing about moving a tank, AQUASCAPING! Think this time I finally like it.... for now.

[Noah_Count]

Thanks for the answers. Actually my wife doesn't know what she's in for because I'm going to use this move as a spark to get more active in the hobby again!;) She's wanting me to sell my stuff but I don't think I'd get enough for it compared to it's original cost and to me that's throwing money away.

[Noah_Count]

Well, the move is done and the Tomato Clown and Royal Gramma seem to have made it through so far. The damsel was dead in the tank when I started this morning. I hate that it died but I wanted it out of there anyway. Now it's time to decide which direction I want to go in once the tank stabilizes a bit from the move. I need something cheap!:) Funds are short right now.